CHITO GASCON Photo by Lilen Uy

HE IS a practicing lawyer, but Jose Luis Martin 'Chito' Gascon also wants it known that among his professions are as "democracy activist" and "social reform advocate." After all, he has been no mere spectator in watershed events in contemporary Philippine politics.

During the first people power, Gascon, then chairman of the University of the Philippines Student Council, and other student activists were among the first to heed the call of Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin and opposition leader Agapito 'Butz' Aquino to go to Edsa. Gascon shuttled between Edsa and Diliman on those four days to, in his words, "refresh the troops."

Gascon still distinctly remembers the roaring military choppers hovering above Camps Crame and Aguinaldo and the fear that swept the crowd that thought these would attack. "Instead of doing that, (the pilots) landed and said that they were joining the people. The fear changed to joy quite quickly," he recalls.

Just as quickly, he confesses, "Not until the actual departure of Marcos did I understand what we were doing. We just knew that we had to be there as it was part of the political developments that were unfolding. I did not think that being at Edsa would, in fact, topple the dictator."

And usher in much more changes. Now 41, Gascon will always be known as the youngest member of the 1986 Constitutional Commission that drafted the 1987 charter. He was named four years later to the Eighth Congress as youth sector representative, which gave him a direct hand in crafting the country's laws.

At the time, he was one of the faces of the supposedly new politics. But then the system itself got old all too soon, or else reverted to the way things were.

Gascon himself says it was a matter of retaining the wrong things. "The mistake (of those in EDSA 1) was thinking it was sufficient to remove a dictator…and everything would fall into place," he says. "We have seen that that does not happen. We removed the dictator, but we retained the political system."

"Our failure is in the consolidation of that democracy," he laments. "Twenty years hence, we see that our democracy continues to face major challenges." Gascon's frustrations mirror those of many in his generation, college students in the mid-1980s whose defining experience was Edsa 1. As they inch toward middle age, this generation is realizing that that the country is in a quagmire. Many have joined the system rather than fight it, and those who continue the struggle are beginning to realize that there is no easy way out of the bog.

Not that Filipinos haven't tried mending the political system to harness the gains of People Power 1. The constitution Gascon helped craft provides for, among other bold initiatives, a multiparty system, term limits on elective officials, a representative Congress through the party-list system, an end to political dynasties, and electoral reforms.

But today a wiser Gascon acknowledges: "There's a big difference between aspirations in a fundamental document and putting it in practice through systems and institutions. We have not really done enough in terms of our governance to make sure that those aspirations are made a reality."

	CHITO GASCON Photo by Lilen Uy

IN JULY 2005, at the height of the political crisis triggered by the disclosure of wiretapped conversations between elections commissioner Garcillano and President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Gascon resigned as undersecretary of education, sharing the belief of the "Hyatt 10" that Arroyo had lost her capacity to govern. He does not conceal his disillusionment with Arroyo, who first came to power as a result of Edsa 2 where Gascon was also an active participant. Then the executive director of the political-think tank National Institute for Policy Studies, he had helped organize demonstrations against President Joseph Estrada.

Before he becoming undersecretary, Gascon served as a member of the Arroyo government's peace panel that negotiated with the communist-led National Democratic Front. Now he says, "There were many promises of Edsa 2 that remained unfulfilled. None of the things she promised she actually pursued vigorously."

He points out that proposals for electoral and political reforms made by a summit convened weeks after Arroyo's ascension to power in 2001 have remained unacted upon. He adds, "Most of the appointments in the post-Aquino period to the Comelec (Commission on Elections) were made not on the basis of integrity and competence but on the basis of political considerations."

For Gascon, the appointment of Garcillano to the Comelec, despite objections by members of Congress and civil society to his "dagdag-bawas" (vote-padding and shaving) reputation, is by far the worst example of a how president has undermined political institutions.

While he is not against constitutional reform, Gascon says the current move to amend the charter is spurred purely by personal political interests, especially by the leadership of the House of Representatives. "Imagine," he says, "we have a president who faces major questions of credibility and legitimacy and then tells the entire nation that it's not her fault and it's the fault of the system. And you have the leader of the House just applauding it because it falls into his agenda."

"I've always said that (charter change) should be at the proper time, using the proper process and for proper reasons," he says. "And that's not the case that we find ourselves in the present."